Text Size

Fiscal cliff: A primer

It’s a stark shift in responsibilities for the vice president, who has been asked to hold off — for now — on leveraging his Capitol Hill connections and to leave the negotiating to his boss.

Biden’s new role is a product of President Barack Obama’s decision to streamline fiscal cliff negotiations between himself and House Speaker John Boehner, the two sides’ clear sticking points and Obama’s increased post-election political clout.

The vice president worked on the Hill for decades and led the bipartisan 2011 debt ceiling group that laid much of the groundwork for the fiscal cliff talks. Now he waits for his moment as Obama leads the White House public relations battle at campaign-style stops in Pennsylvania and Michigan as well as the private talks with Boehner.

“This is the president’s show,” said Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), who participated in the Blair House talks last year. “The president is in charge and if the vice president gets involved, it will be because the president wants him to be involved. This is the president’s show. I don’t see where the vice president is involved at all.”

Biden has participated in a series of White House meetings with outside opinion makers — labor and progressive leaders, governors, chief executives — and in the pre-Thanksgiving sit-down with Boehner, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

The vice president has made two local public appearances to support the president’s negotiating position, talking up the need to help the middle class and allow taxes to rise on the wealthy during stops at the new Washington, D.C., Costco and at an Arlington, Va., diner.

Unlike last summer’s debt ceiling talks, the vice president hasn’t visited Capitol Hill — that’s been left to Legislative Affairs Director Rob Nabors and a lone trip by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. Biden is not engaged in backchannel negotiations, Hill GOP aides said. He isn’t talking with House or Senate Republican leadership about what a deal will look like if and when Obama and Boehner reach an agreement about tax rates.

“In the last few weeks, the vice president has participated in meetings with key congressional leaders, penned an op-ed that ran in newspapers across the country and hosted a roundtable with middle-class families — playing a prominent role in making the administration’s case that Congress must act to prevent an income tax increase on middle-class families,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said. “Given his long-held relationships with Democrats and Republicans on both ends of Capitol Hill, it’s clear to everyone following the talks that a deal won’t be consummated and passed by the Congress without the influence of Vice President Biden.”

Oh, boy... here it comes..should have seen this coming....... Biden being positioned to take over negotiations on the fiscal cliff while Obama jets off on vacation...sure hope there are enough bungees for all of us cliff divers!!!!!

Once Speaker Boehner gooses his fellow Republican ostriches to get their heads out of the sand and he then agrees with President Obama on the general features of a deal, then we should see a lot more of Vice-President Biden, who will be most helpful in rounding up votes and working out an acceptable legislative form of the terms of the deal.

Article: Vice President Joe Biden walked the halls of Congress and hosted top-level talks at Blair House during the last fiscal showdown.

This time, he’s roaming the aisles of Costco.

The CEO of COSTCO is one of Obama's BIGGEST cheerleaders and says that we all have to "pay higher taxes for the common good." But this is the SAME flatulent buffoon who BORROWED who borrowed $3.5 BILLION dollars so that he could pay dividends and boneses to his biggest shareholders at the EXISTING 15% tax rate before Obama's tax rate of 43.4% kicks in!!!!!

That's right. This HYPOCRITE wants us all to pay higher taxes, but he uses his position as the CEO to CHEAT the new higher rates for he and his buddies!

Cmon turn ole joe loose!we all could use a good laugh during these times!If we need more money why arent we taxing huge companies like G.E.?In most households we make cuts if times get tough and try to increase the monies coming in!The of government has increased 3 fold in the last 4-5 years ..cut it back and limit the parties! Cut politicians perks,travel and salaries dont just go after the average Americans paid into social security or medicare! Why cant Everyone..big business,government spending and politicians shoulder the debt with the working Americans?If we concentrate on finally finding or making jobs we could stop un=employment from being a lifelong job!!

Obama allowing Boehner to "save face"? This arrogant president cannot save his own face except to his partisan followers who are no more intelligent than he. Boehner will let the president fall off the cliff as is deserving of Obama the incompetent. There will be no deal.

I guess this isn't a show at all but a lot of hard work, negotiating tactics and a constant focus on how to make things move forward - from both sides. The thing in negotiations is that if one side brings more people in the negotiations the other side must do the same. A structure where the team of advisors are kept in the background and come in at crucial points if necessary is probably much better if one want the process to yield results. It seems to be a serious process, but one also have to keep in mind that what people at this stage tell the media from both sides can be part of the negotiating tactics and should be viewed critically. When Mr Boehner says 'we're very far apart' it might be read as 'I'm not giving in so easily'.

Erik, why would we want things to "move forward" or "show results" if those results happen to be BAD for America? Every time I hear some dolt screech, "we need to get something done!", my heart skips a beat because I KNOW that taxpayers will be getting the proverbial SHAFT!

Earth to the Congressional Republicans....don't agree to ANYTHING that raises tax rates, NOTHING!

Runaway Spending is the problem. Our tax system is already an injustice because 48% of all workers pay no federal income taxes. Who in the HELL gave them the right to ride for free on the efforts of the other 52%?!!!!!!!

All of this breathless anticipation about the "fiscal cliff" negotiations, and which side will "win" the negotiation, ignore one important thing, namely, that the chance that anything meaningful will come out of this process, as far as actually dealing with our fiscal mess, is virtually zero.

Obama and the Democrats don't give a damn about reducing the deficit or putting the fiscal house in order and they never have. The tax increases being pushed for are not about fixing the deficit, they are ideological pure and simple. The numbers have already been crunched and the revenue to be raised by these proposed tax increases on the wealthy won't even put a dent in the deficit, even if we assume they would use whatever increased revenue they do collect to try and pay down the deficit , which is a very weak assumption, based on their track record. We all know, across the political spectrum, that no serious deal is possible on the fiscal mess without huge spending cuts and massive entitlement reform. The Democrats aren't even willing to talk about these topics other than to give the usual assurances that we'll get around to those later, with those assurances being essentially worthless.

The Republicans are no better. The GOP leadership's main goal appears to be to figure a way past this whole topic with the least amount of political fallout. They are essentially worthless as an opposition party and have been for a long time, especially to anyone still holding onto the hope that at least one of the two parties would make a stand for some semblance of fiscal sanity.

The dirty truth that neither side in DC wants to accept is that with the and scope of government that we have, including the massive bloated defense budget and the massive cradle to grave welfare state, there is no legitimate way to raise enough revenue to pay for it all. You can only tax so much before you totally destroy whatever is left of the private sector economy, you can only print so much money before the dollar becomes totally worthless, and you can only borrow so much from the Chinese before they cut off the credit line. When they run out of ways to paper over our true situation, we'll be revealed for what we really are- a nation of two bit bums on the dodge.

So enjoy the show folks and celebrate the "rich" getting soaked. It's all intended as bread and circuses for your entertainment. Just keep in mind that the day of financial reckoning is inevitably coming and when it does, its going to be ugly.

How is Politico going to make a topline story about someone who is basically out. Biden is about as irrelevant as a person can be, particularly a VP. Nobody listens to anything he says unless it is a gaffe. Biden has already been put out to pasture.